Planning ideas

I was reading again in Luke this week and was really struck by what Jesus reminded the disciples of in Luke 10:1-20.  Jesus sent the 70 out to go to cities He was planning on going to in order to get people thinking about the Kingdom of God.  The disciples returned later and were excitedly sharing with Jesus the things that they saw happen in ministry (v.17).  Jesus rejoiced with them (v.18), but reminded them of what was the more important thing:  don’t get so caught up in the activity of ministry that you forget that it’s your relationship with Jesus that is the most important part (v.20).  My prayer for you this week is that you remember your First Love always (Rev.2:1-7).

Last week we talked about how to form as a group of leaders who are trusting God to reach your campus with the great news of salvation through Jesus Christ.  This week I want to share some ideas of how you can plan together to build a movement for Jesus on your campus.

Matthew 28:18-20 is a good model for what should be included in a plan: 

1)      PRAYER - one way you can acknowledge that Jesus has all authority is through your dependence on Him expressed through prayer.  You also acknowledge His authority by completely relying on His power, the Holy Spirit, to minister to others.  Knowing His Word helps you to know His plan for building a movement on your campus.

2)      EVANGELISM – He has sent you out to tell the gospel to everyone.

3)      DISCIPLESHIP – He has called you to help others to grow in their knowledge of Him and in their willingness to obey His commands.

4)      SENDING – He sent the disciples out to share the gospel and to make disciples of all the nations – you can’t make disciples of the nations unless you are sending people out to make those disciples.

(NOTE:  the sacrament of baptism is something that is part of being involved in a local church – please make sure to emphasize to those involved in your movement how important it is to be involved in a local church!)

This video from CruPressgreen.com gives a good overview on the idea of Strategic Planning and here is an article that goes into more detail on the idea on strategic plan. 

One last piece of advice:  there are many, many good activities you can do that will help you to reach your campus.  The difficult thing is knowing which activities to choose.  This is why you must go through this planning process in an attitude of prayer, seeking God’s guidance.  This is the best advice I can give you to know how to choose.  I would also encourage you to limit your activities to those which are the most strategic and requires the least amount of effort.  Try to choose just 1 or 2 things to do in each section for this semester. 

If there are just a few of you in your group, why don’t you plan to do 1 “group activity” in each section and 1 activity which you can do individually?  For example:

PRAYER

• individually you could plan to pray for the campus every day as you walk back and forth to campus;
• as a group, you could meet once a week on your campus for a time of group prayer. 

EVANGELISM

• as individuals you could commit to sharing the gospel with each of your group-mates by the end of the semester;
• as a group you could meet together once a week to hand out planners or do evangelistic surveys together to try to start conversations that lead to the gospel.

DISCIPLESHIP

• as an individual you could commit to having daily quiet times with God (this is more like ‘personal growth’ than discipleship, but some of you are on campuses where you are the only believer – it’s sort of hard to have a discipleship group of one!),
• as a group you could meet together each week to talk about what God is teaching you in your quiet times and/or go through some Bible study material.

SENDING

• as an individual you could find a way to receive training in ministry skills or ask God who you can help in starting a spiritual movement on their campus;
• as a group you could plan how to invite others to the Winter Bible Conference or challenge them to go with you during a break to help reach students in another city.